The Eyes: They See
by MissChriss
Summary: Xander is tired of fighting but the PTB have one last mission for The One Who See's. Slash, dark.
1. To be or not to be, that is the question

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Anita Blake is owned by Laurell K. Hamilton. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is owned by Joss Weadon.

AN: I should warn you that this is **darker** and far more **graphic** than anything I have written before. I know I usually do cute one shots but I want to try something else. I want to test how I do at crime and horror.

This is something I have not done before so please give feedback so I know how I am doing at this genre.

The Eyes: They See

CHAPTER 1: To be or not to be, that is the question.

Another night another fight that was what Xander Harris was thinking. Every night, for the past two weeks, Xander and his two slayers, Sam and Janis, have been hunting a group of Zenwock demons and their hunters. For the past year he had been their watcher and finally really understood just how hard Giles's job was.

Zenwock demons were a migratory species of demons. They looked similar to eight foot tall mosquitoes. They lived in packs with Three Zenwocks and three to four hunters. The hunters were humanoid minions' with the strength of a vampire and claws like a partially transformed were. The hunters would go out every other night and bring back a human to feed to their masters. Zenwock's would stab their proboscis into their victim and liquefy the internal organs before sucking the goo out as if threw a straw. The hunters would then devour the rest of the body leaving nothing but the bones behind.

Since the Zenwock rarely leave their lair they needed to follow a hunter.

"I don't see why I have to be bait?" Sam whined. "This is taking too long people are going to start thinking I'm some kind of freak just standing here." Sam had always been the impatient one in the group.

"Sam quiet," Xander scolded. "It won't be long now. We finally isolated their hunting ground." Which was no easy task, it took many nights of patrolling, as well as research. They have used a new form of mathematical research that was developed by another slayer's father who was a professor of applied mathematics and behavior at MIT. He postulated that they could isolate the area a demon might be in or hunt in based on the habits of other local demon behavior. Nights were spent gathering information on the reactions of other demons as well as searching for the hunters the old fashion way, brute force interrogation of demon hot spots, patrolling and sheer damn luck.

Xander moved to hide behind a blue rusted dumpster in the alley. From behind the dumpster he had a perfect view of both the storm drain and the crowds of people leaving the movie theater and walking past the alley. Looking up to the fire escape he motions to Janis to keep an eye out on the storm drain.

With in half an hour of waiting the lid to the storm drain moved and Janis texted Sam that it was time. A pale gray skinned human shaped creature in a dark brown leather trench coat. Xander knew from experience that it was no ordinary leather but in fact leather made from human skin. It made Xander sick to his stomach when the demons walked around wearing human remains. That was someone's friend, some one child, mother, father, lover.

Sam slyly walked into the alley putting her back against the wall and pretending to light a cigarette. Xander hated plans like this one where one of his girls had to let herself be captured. However the risk was necessary if they wanted to find the Zenwock, and Sam was the strongest, if anyone could handle things it would be her. Sometimes she reminded him a lot of Buffy.

The hunter slinked up behind her and hit Sam on the back of the head. Had Sam not been expecting this or been a slayer the hit would have been enough to knock her out. Sam fell back as if she had been knocked out. The Hunter heaved her over his shoulder and ran back down the storm drain.

Janis jumped down from the fire escape and joined Xander. She pulled out her GPS device and watched as the little green dot was moving farther and farther away. Xander and Janis waited a few seconds, so as to be caught by the Hunter, before jumping down the storm drain and followed the tracking device.

When they arrived at the large junction the fight had just started. Xander and Janis quickly jumped into the battle to help their team mate who was leaping on pipes and slashing at one of the two living Hunter demons. The third Hunter, the one who had taken Sam, was lying dead, in a pile of putrid demon excrement, with a large gaping wound across its neck.

"Sam, catch," Janis yelled as she threw a short sword to Sam. Sam immediately caught it and slashed at the Zenwock she was now attacking. Janis then moved to attack the second Zenwock and a Hunter. Xander moved with his sword to attack the third, however, without slayer strength he was at a disadvantage. His plan was to distract the Zenwock while dodging its attacks long enough for one of his girls to finish the others. Dodging was a specialty of his especially with the improved vision that Willow had placed on his eye patch. It allowed him to see faster and more accurately and improved his reflexes. Not only that bet after years of being a geek he had become excellent at dodging from years of gym class dodge ball as well as avoiding the flying beer bottles from his drunken parents.

Xander jumped back and tucked into a role as the demon lunged towards him. Just as he was about to stand up a second Zenwock came flying towards his as Janis kicked the creature back away from her so she could play slice and dice on the last Hunter. Xander not expecting the flying demon fell back slamming his head on a hot steam pipe, burning the back of his head as well as making him a bit dizzy. However, he had to keep fighting. The kicked demon immediately swatted at him before returning to fight with Janis. Xander dodged the attack but fell back into the Zenwock he was attacking.

Xander screamed as the three foot long proboscis, of the Zenwock demon, pierced through his abdomen. His hands were frantically grasping and trying to pull at the slimy smooth gray brown proboscis. He could feel his organs being chemically liquefied and sucked through the hollow appendage of the demon. This was it. This was how he was going to die. Xander knew it there was no coming back from this fight. Hopefully he distracted the beast long enough for his girls to take it out.

Truth be told he was relieved, he was tired of fighting. Ever since Willow and Buffy died last year, Anya three years before, and his first and new boyfriend Jay six months ago, he lost the passion to fight. He was drained, too many years, too many deaths.

It's not that he wanted to give up. He knew the importance of what he does. He knew that the fight is to save the world. He was part of the front line of an unending war. He knew that with every night and every fight lives were being saved. Every time he fought someone else lived. He knew that every time he fought alongside his slayers that maybe he had bought them enough time to slay the demons.

Xander knew that he played an important role, he had been a part of many prophesies since the first. But he was tired, and it's not like saving the world comes with vacation time. He was always needed. There was just too much to do: research to be done, rounds to patrol, girls to bandage and patch up. The house always needed to be repaired, weapons to sharpen, stakes to whittle. There were prophesies that needed to be puzzled and a never ending supply of vampires and demons. It seemed as though his side was always playing some cosmic game of catch up.

Looking at his girls, armed to the teeth and fighting with grace and strength, swinging short broad swords and daggers, Xander started to remember how his family got together.

Sam and Janis were potentials that had been activated three years before. They were twelve at the time and did not fully understand what was happening to them. Sam's parents had been killed when a group of local vampires realized what she was and attacked her home. Janis had been thrown out of her home when her parents noticed her powers. With the councils pull Xander had been able to adopt her as claiming that he was a cousin. Giles had tried to explain to her parents about her powers. How she was chosen. However, they could only see that she was a freak. To them the powers came from the devil and that the bible told them to never suffer a witch to live. And while she is not an actual witch it was close enough. They had transferred guardianship to Xander, stating to the courts that he was a friend of the family and that they could no longer handle her. It was proven that since Xander was trained, through the Jenny Calendar School for Girls, also known informally as slayer academy, to deal with troubled girls, he had the resources to help her. With that they had become a family. They stayed at the academy, in Cleveland, for a year going through basic training before moving to Portland to cover their growing demon population. Xander did not want to leave his family, but he knew they were strong and had a large extended family of watchers and slayers that would take care of them.

Xander took in a shaky breath more painful than anything he had felt before, including when Celeb gouged out his eye. The grease like excretion had moved up to his lungs and was starting to eat away the organ. Xander looked up through his blurring vision to see Samantha (Sam) running at him with her broad sword. The sharp silver plated blade sliced through the proboscis severing Xander from the creature. Janis another of Xander's slayers decapitated the beast. It was dead, they succeeded, he could finally rest. He closed his eye and took one last breath. "You did good. I'm ppp proud." He stuttered. "Call Giles," he told them. He never got to hear the slayers response.

**

Closing his eyes Xander felt himself being engulfed in whitish blue light. Warmth crept across his skin like a warm breeze. He felt as though he was waking up after a long restful sleep. The kind of sleep you get, after going three days straight researching and hunting a demon, when you pass out muscles screaming eyes burning and adrenalin crashing. It was waking up from the exhausted dead sleep refreshed relaxed and rejuvenated. It was waking up with the feeling of being able to do anything. Xander was feeling as though the afterlife was his oyster, well not oyster since he really didn't like oysters more like Twinkies. Yes Twinkies yummy yellow cream filled cakes of goodness the perfect food for the perfect feeling.

Xander opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a room the wall seemed to be made of mist and the floor water; however, he was lying on top of the water completely dry. The air was cool and moist a crisp freshness that was bliss to breathe. At the front of the room was a large judge's bench where stood five figures dressed in immaculate, if Clorox could dream, white suits.

"Where am I?" Xander asked as he approached the bench. "Is this the entrance to heaven, I thought Willow would meet me here."

"Welcome, this is not the afterlife, and Miss Rosenberg is indeed waiting for you. We are the Powers." The powers responded speaking as one. Xander personally though it was creepy how a group could speak synchronized sounding like one strong eerie ethereal voice. However he felt that telling them this would not be the best of ideas, what with them being the ever annoying Powers that be, PTB. So this is what the perpetual thorns in his backside looked like.

"What do you want now, I'm done fighting." Xander told them. The power in the middle who seemed to be the leader stepped forward towards Xander placing his hand on Xander's shoulder.

"We know you're tired, and that this is a time of rest for you." The powers spoke. "You are one of our greatest champions. You are the one who sees, and as such there is one more mission we have to ask of you."

Xander looks up to the Power and ask "Why can't I rest? Why can't someone else help? Why can't someone else be the one who sees? And sees what I never saw squat, hell I'm even missing an eye I can't even see depth perception properly." Xander was getting pissed he just wanted to see Willow, Buffy and Anya. He wanted to see rivers of hot cocoa and islands of marshmallows or whatever the hereafter was made of.

"There is no one else. Powers like yours can only be given to the worthy, to the pure of heart and of soul. Your powers come because you are one of God's Chosen, his warriors. You fight, you protect, and every few lifetimes you rest. It is how it always has been and so shall be. You do not remember but you choose this path. There are those, like the Slayer's and your witch, who only get called to fight once in all eternity, they do their duty and are rewarded by not being called again. They have fighting spirits but they are and always were human spirits. You are not a human spirit, though you take human form, you are an angel of God, a spirit of love. You were the heart of your last group. You are that which binds good warriors together. You are the one who sees. You see how to spark the will to fight and go on. You see hope and motivation even in the darkest hour. You see light, and love. You see beyond masks and into the heart of mankind. You see life." The Powers explained.

"If I see all of that then why don't I know it? You would think I could see what I am supposedly seeing."

"You vision is not a conscious power but rather a subconscious…"

"You're going psycho babbly on me and I don't have a Willow to translate. I'll just take your word for it." Xander interrupted. "If I'm a so called angel, and I choose this, then why don't I remember anything? You would think that dying would jump start the memory past life thing."

"Normally this would be true," the Powers responded, "however, you have not fully died yet. We need you to go to this other reality as you are, as Xander, and you cannot do that in your true form. You will have more powers, your seeing powers will be more amplified in order to help you."

"Oh" Xander replied as if that made perfect sense.

"As with all realities an angel is sent to the chosen warriors. However in this case the angel was caught at a young age by an agent of evil and has lost his way. He is unable to guide because his spirit has been crushed. You are the best to go in because he is your soul mate. It is not often that angelic soul mates meet in the same job. They tend to be separated during working lives and only meet again in the heavenly plane.

"I have a soul mate, a male soul mate, what about Anya?"

"Yes everyone has a soul mate. Angels have no gender, so while his human body is male he is still an angelic soul. Anya is a human soul, and although she was a demon for thousands of years she was born human and such has a human soul mate to which she has met in the hereafter." The Powers went on to explain, "You as an angel have found that your relationships with humans were not long lasting. This is because your soul is incompatible with human souls on a romantic level. It is why you were not able to marry Anya, as a marriage is a contract in God's presents."

Xander thought about this, it made sense and it boosted his ego. All this time he had felt that he was destined to be alone. Xander smiled. The thought that he could meet his soul mate, truly find love, real love, the forever love, the kind that doesn't end, someone to hold onto. He had been searching for that for so long now.

The powers were going to give it to him; all he had to do was continue to fight. Xander sat down; he had to think about this. He had been tired of fighting; it wore too much on him. And now not only did he have to go back and fight, give up his long awaited vacation, rest afterlife peace, but he had to do so in another reality, a new place new people he did not know, new rules and new evil. Life was hard, and he felt like he was making sacrifice after sacrifice. Did he want to go through that again? However, getting to be with his soul mate, having the love he always wanted, that would be something worth fighting for, worth living for. It was then in that moment, when he felt the hope inside him flare, that Xander made his choice. Love was worth fighting for and he was willing to travel back to life and fight off hell to have it.

Xander stood up and approached the PTB. "I'll go, but can you tell me what to expect? What kind of challenges, what kind of evil are we going to face?"

"Thank you for accepting this mission. We cannot tell you anything about your new world because you will not remember it. You will arrive with no memories of this conversation and most if not all of your memories of this past life will be gone. Only a few memories from this last life will remain and only to help you with your mission. You will not need most of your memories as it will confuse you with the different realities; your spirit will guide you to doing your job and finding your soul mate. "

"But, but…" Xander attempted to interrupt but was wrapped in an envelope of white light.

AN: Tune in soon for the second chapter.

Please review and tell me what you think. I need feedback to know how I am doing in darker longer genre of writing.

Also if you would like to Beta for me and talk plot ideas I would really appreciate it, especially if you are familiar with Anita Blake Universe. My grammar and spelling are not very good but I try and learn.


	2. Work, work , work

I do not own any of the characters. I'm not that talented, yet.

The Eyes: They See

AN: I have been really inspired by this fic, but don't worry I have not abandon my other fic, Xander goes to DC, I have most of the next chapter done already.

Chapter 2: Work, work, work

On Monday morning, Anita dragged herself out of bed, and turned off the alarm clock on the night stand. Micah was away on a business trip discussing lycanthrope rights in New York. Nathaniel had woken up about an hour earlier and had a hearty breakfast starting for him and Jason. Jason had come over since the two of them were going to go shopping for new costume ideas. Halloween was less than a month away and it was a time where they could show their costume creativity at Guilty Pleasures, the vampire strip club, where they worked. Nathaniel had the table covered in various patterns and his sewing machine set up in the living room.

Anita stumbled into the kitchen grumbling about how it was too early to be awake. Nathaniel got up and handed her penguin mug full of steaming extra strong coffee.

"How many clients are you seeing today?" Nathaniel asked.

"Four. I usually leave the meet and greet to Bert but some of the clients insist on meeting the animator." Along with being the human servant to the Master of the City of St. Louis, Jean-Claude, Anita was also Nimir-Ra (queen) to the leopard's Bolverk (enforcer) to the wolves, The Executioner, licensed executioner of vampires, a federal marshal who worked on preternatural crimes, necromancer, she officially raised the dead for a living and was employed as a full time animator at Animators Inc. As an animator and the rest of her jobs she worked nights often times not getting to bed until four, five, and sometimes six o'clock in the morning. Many times the precious few hours she would have slept she would be called in to see a crime scene that took place during the night and was only found in the morning. Add that to amounting politics in both the vampire and lycanthrope community and well she was tired. Neither her clients nor her boss Bert liked to respect that she worked nights and often times called her in to meetings and paper work during "normal" business hours.

After guzzling her second cup Anita was coherent enough to notice that Jason was in the room. The ostentatious flirt was making eyes at her and she could tell that any moment now he would be making a comment and hitting on her. "Not now Jason, it's too early for your flirting." She scolded him.

"It's never too early to flirt." He responds giving her a wink.

"Anita if you have time, Stephen should be here in fifteen minutes and we will be having breakfast. The batter for the french toast is mixed and the bacon, sausage, and ham are defrosted. I'm about ready to start cooking?" Nathanial asked as he started pulling a large frying pan and a cast iron griddle from the cupboard next to the sink.

"Four coarse breakfasts were never my thing." Anita told him.

"Oh." Nathanial's face fell as he uttered that syllable. "At least have a bowl of cereal or toast before you go." He said as he reached into the cabinet pulling out a bowl.

"I'm not hungry." She growled causing Nathanial to look at her with a sad broken face. She loved Nathanial but his submissiveness was getting on her nerves. She wanted him to be more independent. She did not need a mother or a child and sometimes Nathanial was both. Always trying to serve her and then looking dejected when he wasn't needed. She did not understand how a striper could be so childish. Evidently her original opinion, that strippers were independent and stubborn, was wrong. Not all of them were like Demi Moore.

"Besides I have to get going. My first client will be arriving at nine, that gives me twenty minutes to drive their and ten to try convince Bert to have me stop meeting clients in the morning. I have the perfect new coffee mug to annoy him with." Anita moved over to the cupboard and pulled out her new mug. She had found it on e-bay last week and had received it in the mail yesterday. She held it up for the boys to see. It had a trademark witch, black conical hat and all, with a zombie penguin eating man with little blood droplets that wrapped around the mug. It read, "Raising my zombie penguin army." It was cute, disturbing and best of all it would irritate Bert, thus making her morning at work infinitely better.

Anita put the mug on the counter and moved over to the hall closet grabbing her leather jacket. It was getting cold again, now that fall had firmly set it, early fall was often just as hot as summer and made wearing a jacket difficult. Anita needed a jacket to conceal her shoulder holster and she never went anywhere without a gun. While the business jacket worked well enough sitting down at her desk the leather jacket was her favorite for walking around and movement because its thick fabric was her best wardrobe choice for completely hiding her gun. She adjusted her suit jacket and straightened the black leather jacket over it, grabbed the mug and kissed Nathaniel before heading out the door.

**

Anita had finished with her first client and set up the raising at midnight Saturday, she was going to need the extra boost of power with a midnight rising to raise this body. When it came to raising bodies this old few could do it without a human sacrifice. By now the body would have finished decomposing down to bones and well bones don't have vocal cords so it would take extra energy to raise it with the ability to speak.

Mrs. Anna Mc Gillicutty wanted her great grandmother raised to find out where and in which of the family eight manors was the jewelry hidden. When the great Mrs. Ruth Mc Gillicutty was diagnosed with tuberculosis she had hidden the family heirloom jewels from her sister. She hated her sister and the feud between the two sides of the family has lasted for a hundred years. Now that Anna was the last of the line she wanted to find the jewels and donate them to a museum. The Mc Gillicuttys were once the head of the largest Dukedom in Scotland and the ruby necklace was said to be one of the most beautiful in the world, set with the famous Hunter's Moon Ruby.

Anita was just getting up to get her next cup of coffee when Zerbrowski called telling her to get her butt over to West Forest Park for a preternatural homicide. Forest Park was one of the most historic parts of St. Louis and as such a landing ground for a cornucopia of tourist. Tourists were in Anita's opinion worse than locals at crime scenes. Tourist seemed to think that a crime on a vacation is a source of entertainment, and since they don't live there their common sense seems to tell them that there is no danger, every moment is a photo opportunity. Some locals are just as curious and obnoxious but many feel like they rather observe from a nice safe distance or they ignore it telling themselves in their minds that their neighborhoods are safe and that won't happen to them. Well at least until it's a serial and them they yell for lynch mobs and hide in their homes.

**

Anita ducked under the yellow tape flashing her federal marshal badge to the cops on duty. It was, as she thought, a mad house of tourist with flashing cameras and bony elbows. The reporters were already there demanding statements and generally being a pain in the ass.

"Take me to Dolph he's expecting me." Anita told one of the cops, a tall muscular man with a shaved head. About ten years ago he would have been called a skinner and a member of a gang and never would have been allowed in a police uniform, even military men had a crew cut back then, but now bald was the hippest trend. Why go bald naturally when you can just shave it all off now. Anita had to admit she loved hair, most of the men she is with now have at least shoulder length and longer. Even her own hair was a mid back length when straightened and just past her shoulder blades when curly. The Mr. Clean look was just not one of her turn-on's.

Anita followed the officer through the trees and stopped in front of Dolph and Zerbrowski who were talking to the medical examiner. "You going to tell me what's going on here?" Anita asked the group. The ME opened his mouth to speak but Dolph beat him to it.

"Where's the fun in that. Why don't you go take a look and tell us. It's what you're trained to do." Dolph for the past year had been a right ass to Anita, taking out his frustration, with his son marrying a vampire, on her. She was the embodiment of everything he hated, she dated the monsters and his wife would not yell at him if he took it out on her rather than his son. Lately though, after the rest of the R.P.I.T. (Regional Preternatural Investigative Taskforce) started to try and talk down his anger, he's been getting better, almost like he had been before the mess with his son. He still refused to accept his son or Anita's life style and as things came up related to her choice in partner he still had several snide, angry comments.

Anita put on her gloves so as to not mess with the crime scene and walked over to the body.

"Shit! This man's been skinned alive." She exclaimed. The body was lying face down in the grass naked and his muscles exposed. Luckily the body was still fresh, she thought, the smell was not too bad, and the cool temperature kept it from decomposing too quickly. "Looks like a body dump; this man was not skinned here." She told the men going right back to work examining the body. "He looks to have been in his mid twenties about 5'10'' and fairly imposing in stature. Someone pretty strong had to have done this." She moved up to stand at the head of the dead man. Turing to the ME she asked, "Can I touch the body?"

"I finished with him and the detectives have taken photos. He's all yours." The ME responded as he finished packing his tools into his kit.

"There is a pentagram carved onto his forehead and two more on each of his hands." She said as she lifted his head off the ground to get a better look. "If I had to guess I'd say he would have the same markings on each foot as well." Anita moved around the body to the feet to prove her statement. "There was defiantly magic used here. Not for the actual skinning, there are knife marks, but it was part of a ritual. Lingering magic clings to him. I don't know what kind of ritual though." Motioning over to Dolph she knelt by the body. "Can you help me flip him; I need to see the front." She noticed that Zerbrowski and a few other male officers wince and look away. "Castrated," she said.

"How'd you guess?" Dolph asked as he moved to flip to body.

"Your men; men always flinch when there's a castrated body." When she saw the front she quickly got up. "Dolph you need to call a sanitation crew in immediately this man was a lycanthrope." She told him. Sanitation crews were now required at all lycanthrope crime scenes as people still had a strong fear of contamination regardless of the fact that dead lycanthrope blood held no chance for infection especially if the lycanthrope was in its human form.

"Zerbrowski get on that." Dolph ordered. "How can you tell? The ME said he was human."

"Look at his rib area. That was where he was cut first. You can see where he was trying to heal. Humans don't heal that fast. He could be a strong witch doing a healing spell but they don't work that well on yourself and they take a lot of concentration and meditation, and frankly I don't think one has a lot of concentration when they are being skinned alive, and he was alive the whole time."

"Why skin a Were, I thought their skin returns to human when severed?" Zerbrowski asked. "Sanitation is on its way."

"It does. I'll need to see x-rays to see if he was shifted at the time he was skinned, and DNA to find the species. I suspect that this was done as part of a ritual, but I know of no rituals that call for skinning a were. To inflict this kind of damage I speculate that the knife used was silver." Anita said as she stood up and removed her gloves, with extra care, and quickly moved over to the portable sanitation. She made quick effort to wash her hands with the iodine solution. She use to not worry about it because she knew that the man was not contagious once he was dead, but she was taking no chances. And although, she didn't have to worry about becoming a lycanthrope because she carried so many strains in her already, but she didn't want the others to know that, she could lose her job. She also did not want to have a new strain in her. From what she could tell this was no wolf, leopard, tiger, or lion. It did not feel like any feline and she did not recognize the man as anyone she knew. True she did not know every lycanthrope in the city, but she did know a large portion, through her work with both Jean-Claude, as his girlfriend, and Micah through the coalition.

AN: Please leave a **review**, it lets me know how I am doing.


	3. Phoneathon

The Eyes: They See

Chapter Three: Phone-a-thon

One of the first things, that Anita knew, she needed to do was to find some way of discovering who the victim was. The problem was that lycanthropes rarely filed missing person reports for fear that their lycanthropy could be discovered and their jobs could be endangered. Pulling out her cell Anita called speed dial #4 Micah. The phone rang twice before she heard his voice on the other line.

"Anita."

"How is New York?" She asked, "Anything interesting at the convention?"

"It's great; I was just going to have some lunch. New York is huge, you would not believe how many people are running around. I met with Vincent Zelenski the Master of New York. He really runs a tight ship over here. He runs his town like the Russian army with regiments in different parts of the city. With so many lycanthropes here the vampire heads of the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Tribeca, are all attending the convention and keeping the peace. I also had a chance to speak to Ethan Montgomery the Nimir-raj of the New York Pard. He wished that you as my Nimir-ra would have come as well. I think we are making real progress with lycanthrope rights especially in regards to secure employment. However, I think it will still be a while before any of the ideas are implemented. People are still too afraid. People are more afraid of lycanthropes than vampires." Micah was telling her excitedly.

"I'm glad that things are going so well for you. We miss you over hear. Jason, Stephen and Nathaniel went out today to start on their Halloween costumes." Anita's voice then changed to a very serious tone. "However, that is not why I am calling. I need to know who I can call to find out if any lycanthropes are missing. We have a body and from the nature of the crime I think several more will be found. There are probably several missing now of if not now than soon."

"Damn. Do you know what species or is it several." Micah asked

"I don't know yet, but it is definably not a large cat or wolf. I also don't know if the killings are going to be species oriented or general lycanthrope."

"OK, Call Margret Wassermann her number is in the address book in the kitchen. She can also put you in contact with all the individual pack leaders for the state."

"Thanks. Hopefully I am wrong about the situation and it is only the one murder; I have a bad gut feeling though that this is only beginning."

**

The sun was setting by the time Anita Mrs. Wassermann finally called back.

"Evening Ms. Blake. I do apologize for taking so long with the information. However, without a physical description many of my contacts do not wish to have the information sent out to the police. However, with your reputation I have convinced many to agree to cooperate and give out their personal information as long as you give me your word that the list or any information does not get out to the police. They are trusting that you will protect them." Wassermann's thick southern accent was right out of Gone with the Wind.

"Yes, thank you. I understand the need for secrecy and will only disclose the information once I personally can identify the person. However, while I can't disclose any information on case, I can tell you that any ID I can make will only be a possible identification so I might have to disclose a few names of the most likely person. I will try to keep the number to a minimum and have strict guidelines and criteria for the identification." Anita explained. There was just no way to make a fully positive physical match with the skin missing. However, with luck the physical attributes and a blood species match should hopefully narrow it down to one or two persons.

"Ms. Blake I have emailed you the files with the photos of missing lycanthropes whose leaders and families have consented to have the files sent to you. If however you find that no one in the files matches with the body then please call me back and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you for the information. I promise to do my best to protect their privacy."

"I hope you catch the bad guys. I saw the news this afternoon, and I assume this is about what happened in the park. They say the body was mutilated."

"You know I can't discuss the case."

"I know I just wanted to wish you luck. Micah is a good friend of mine. I know a lot of these people personally and I want them home safely."

"Thanks, I will do my best." Anita heard a faint beep from her cell telling her she had another call. "I have to go, I have another call." She told Wassermann.

"Have a good night."

"Bye."

Looking at the phone she recognized the number. "Anita Blake," she answered.

"Anita I found the information you were looking for." Janet Fitz's voice called out through the phone. She was a new member of RPIT a trained witch and preternatural historian. While she was not very powerful her knowledge of spells and rituals was remarkable. Janet was relative useless in the field she was meek and quiet and preferred her books. Personally Anita disliked women like her, she preferred strong independent people not ones who scream at every noise and faint at the site of blood. However it was hard to hate Janet she was just too nice, one of those cookies and muffin woman who generally liked to help people.

"Did you tell Zerbrowski of Dolph yet?" Anita asked

"Not yet I thought I would tell you first."

"Alright hit me. What kind of spell or ritual am I looking at?" Anita asked.

"Well from what I gather, there is not much done with lycanthrope skin because the skin reverts back to human skin when removed. There are some very dark rituals though. There is evidence that in the past dark shape shifting witches used lycanthrope skin and tanned it into leather to bind their grimoires. The residual magic in the skin was said to make the witch more powerful as well as aid into shifting into those animals. Also using the leather to cover alters was also said to increase the witches power. The more species the more power full the alter and spells."

"So we are look for a very powerful dark practitioner. And we can expect more bodies."

"Anita that's not all. This form of power raising went out of style in the dark ages because it was said that it would destroy the soul. And no one get power like that for nothing there is always a purpose. The witches in the past used the magic to raise demons strait from hell."

"Shit. Look, call Dolph and tell him what you told me. I'll call Zerbrowski. Tell Dolph that I'm heading to the station. If you are right we need to catch this witch fast. Demons are nearly impossible to kill. We need to stop this before it starts. Find out all you can about demon raising, see if you can't get me a time frame. Magic like that usually needs some astrological mojo." Anita quickly hung up the phone not waiting for a reply and called Zerbrowski to apprise him of the situation. There would be more bodies of that she was sure, and if they did not hurry a demon. Anita shuttered at the thought with a demon there would be hundreds of deaths if not more. They were ruthless, soulless forever hungry creatures that fed on human flesh and drank human souls.

TBC

Thank you for reading,

Reviews are much appreciated


	4. Costume Time

The Eyes: They See

Chapter Four: Costume Time

"Damn I hate sowing," Jason announced throwing the black fabric on the ground after he pricked his finger for the third time. "I don't see why we have to make these ourselves. It's why they invented tailors and costume designers. Jean Claude pays good money for our costumes and I don't have to do any work." He was getting frustrated, especially since he wasn't even sowing just following Nathanial's hems with straight pins.

"Don't take it out on the fabric," Stephen said laughing at Jason's monstrosity of a costume. The boy just could not sow worth a damn. He knew that inevitably like last year Nathanial was going to jump in and make the entire costume for him

"Because it's fun," Nathanial responded. "Besides I told you that I would help you with your costume. How did you convince Damian to use his time off from Dance Macabre to partner with you for your show?" Nathanial still could not believe it.

"Two things really, I told him all he had to do was stand there and his costume is rather conservative, full pirate getup hardly any skin showing. And second, one word Halo."

"What does the video game you two always play have to do with this?"

"Easy. We made a bet on a game and I won so he has to do me a favor."

"He must have been pissed off when he lost. You two take that game so seriously."

"Are you kidding I pulled that win out of my ass I hardly ever win. He was flabbergasted it was hilariously wonderful. And I am telling you man Halo is a way of life." Jason explained to him as he looked at the pattern of his cabin boy costume with a wicked grin on his face. He had to admit the idea was defiantly fun.

Damian was to be the imposing captain and Jason the cabin boy was putting on a slutty little show for him. It was one of his better themed ideas over the years. Last year they did a group theme of Peter Pan and the lost boys. Two years ago it was story book free for all. Pick your favorite classic book character. There was an Arabian Nights act, and a fairy tale act. The most popular act that year was a very twisted Oliver Twist 'Please sir may I have some more'.

Halloween at Guilty Pleasures was more of a Vegas show than regular strip club and This year though Jean-Claude felt that total show themes were out of date. Everywhere was doing themes and the crowd was always full. Tickets were sold in advance. The shows didn't take place at the club because the space was too small but rather in the large theater at the Circus. The theaters were equipped with cameras and screens so that the back rows would have an excellent view of the stage. The whole show was why Dance Macabre was shut down so all focus could be on the Guilty Pleasure performance. There would be three performances one on Halloween eve, one on Halloween and the last the day after. It worked out this year, two years ago the performance had to moved up a week because Halloween fell on the full moon and with half the dancer being Lycanthrope it was impossible to hold the show.

This year Jean-Claude wanted something different for the show. He wanted each act to be completely different with nothing in common with the previous. He wanted to shock the audience with randomness and spontaneity. He wanted to shock the audience so that every dance was new and exciting. Jason is doing the pirate thing mostly because it was the only thing he could convince Damian to join in on. There were lines to memorize and a sound track similar to Pirates of the Caribbean for his dances. Stephan and Gregory are doing an angel and devil thing with white feathers and fire which was pretty hot since they were identical twins. Jean-Claude had a permit for pyrotechnics and that to a big part of their act innocence heat and lust. The room will get pretty hot but will cool down quickly with the help of mist and magic for Nathanial act. He is doing an avant-garde ribbon dance with black satin everywhere. He's been practicing for months now on how to dance, the costume and colors he chose this afternoon. So far he has place the most thought into his performance, but that was not unusual there is a perfectionist nature to him. And he truly loves to perform. Jason loves being the center of attention in almost everything leading him to be a regular clown most of time. Stephan and Gregory perform because they are good at it and they know it. Gregory especially just loves excelling. But Nathanial changes when he dances, he displays a confidence that challenges his extreme submissiveness that he displays to the outside world.

"Stephen." Nathanial called out turning to face the other side of the room where Stephen was working on his costume. Gregory had opted out of the shopping leaving both costumes for Stephen to work on. Luckily their costumes were relatively easy make, since the wings were already ordered and being custom made. "Have you and Gregory picked out music yet for your performance."

"Yea, Greg is working with Diane now picking the music and writing the choreography so we can get it to the pyrotechnics so they can get started planning the fire. Were thinking a type of Angel get's pulled down to hell by its evil lust full twin. I'm not too good with lines and speaking in public so ours is going to be completely told with dance and music. We were thinking a rock/metal vibe."

"Cool." Jason piped in. "Jake is doing a short dance to 80's glam rock after my segment."

"That will defiantly bring up the energy levels, I hope I don't disappoint with my part, its hard being a single act going one after a double, and twins at that with fire." Nathanial said.

"Yea but that ribbon thing you've been practicing is very hard and sexy. And the colors you picked out are amazing."

"Really, I was thinking of an ice lust with blue lighting after your fire would work well. I was thinking using ethereal Enya type music and then blending it into electronic." Nathanial explained. "Hey do you think Anita will like it, she doesn't seem to like me much anymore."

"What are you talking about she loves you." Jason told him while Stephen nodded in agreement. Everyone knew that Nathanial was one of the men that Anita was in love with. "Why do you think she doesn't love you anymore?"

"She's been getting so angry lately, like this morning she growled at me. I didn't like that nor did my kitty. It seems like I annoy her just for being. I don't know maybe it's just my imagination or she is just stressed."

"Nathanial I know why she growled at you this morning, I just didn't say anything." Jason told him.

"Why?"

"Anita is just not from your world. She doesn't understand that you're submissive. She has been taught that independence is strength. She doesn't understand your need to submit and because of that she doesn't know how to react to it. Because she does not understand she reacts negatively to it."

"What do I do, I love her and I want her to accept all of me. I'm trying to be more independent like she likes I even got my driver's license even though I hate driving."

"Just give her time. Being a bit more independent is good for you but don't change all of yourself or you will eventually be miserable." Jason explained.

"Balance is the key to your relationship," Stephen told him.

"You need to find a balance and she needs more time." Jason told him but deep down inside, as cute as Nathanial and Anita were together, he knew they just didn't belong. Nathanial needed a dom and Anita could not and would not take that role in his life.

Both Jason and Stephen believed that with the proper dominant Nathanial would thrive. He was a born submissive and had a need to be needed, a need that Anita would not fill. They were also sure that she would never understand his need for pain in his play. That was not her style. She still saw love and sex as a bed of roses and flowers and cuddles. She could not understand pain and pleasure, and while neither Jason nor Stephen truly enjoyed BDSM it was a part of Nathanial and something he truly enjoyed and Anita was keeping that from him. Jason and Stephen had discussed this before and they were sure that others knew this as well but as long as Nathanial felt loved and protected by Anita and Anita felt the need to protect Nathanial the two would stay together regardless that neither is what the other wants or needs.

"Thanks I'll try. What would I do without you guys?"

"Be bored," Stephen said as he proceeded to hit Nathanial with a pillow, abruptly ending any serious discussion. Today was about fun and Nathanial's relationship troubles were not fun.

**

After getting off the phone with Zerbrowski, to inform him of the possible demon situation, Anita quickly drove home to print off the files. No one was home as Nathanial was spending time at the circus with Jason. With twenty missing male lycanthropes and five missing female it took nearly fifteen minutes to print and put each into its individual folder. She figured that at least ten had left of their own volition a few running away with their secretaries or the nearest motorcycle misfit or some such excuse.

By the time Anita got to RPIT the blood test had come in, Bear. There were very few bears living in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Anita knew of a group who lived in the next county over they had a permit for full moons at Florence Lake Park. While Florence Lake was really more of a large pond than a lake it was stocked with fish especially for their group.

"So what else do we have?" Anita asked Dolph.

"Not much. Jerry is working on facial reconstruction software trying to get an ID on the vic."

"Great, get that to me as soon as it's done I can run the face through my files." Anita told him.

"Your files, what files do you have that we don't?" Dolph asked with an angry tone. His anger had a habit of coming out when Anita showed that her life had too many contacts with monsters. He could not see monsters as anything else but monsters.

"Yes my files, I have selection of profiles on missing lycanthropes in the area."

"Why don't the police have those, all missing persons are on file with the police."

"It is not a legal requirement to run a missing persons report on an adult, and many lycanthropes would rather not be in the system. I hold the files for their protection."

"Damn it Anita. Stop protecting the enemy." Dolph barked at her.

"They are not the enemy and they have every right to the protection of privacy. Get your head out of your ass Dolph, they are the ones being killed this time." She was getting sick of his bitch temper. While it had improved in the past few months he was still getting on her nerves.

"And if it wasn't for this demon thing I'd say good riddance." Dolph said before marching out of the room. He knew he needed to cool off, but every reminder of just how close Anita was to the monsters was just a shove in his face about his son's decision to love a vampire.

Anita turned around to face Zerbrowski. "What else do we have?" She asked him.

"The lab got a match on the tire print we found. It's from a 2000 Dodge Caravan. Nothing came up on the traffic cams, no speeding, and no running a red light." Zerbrowski explained as he held up a picture of a 2000 Dodge Caravan. "No prints were found at the scene. The knife used is a double bladed silver dagger. No match has been found in the database for the slice marks made by the dagger so it might be custom made."

Anita hated to admit but it was not much to go on, and she had a bad feeling that they needed to catch this guy fast. Just as she was going to remark on the information that Zerbrowski told them the phone rang.

"RPIT Anita Blake speaking."

"Marshal Blake this is Jerry over at the Lab. I have finished the facial reconstruction. They are being sent over email."

"I'll go check that out right away. Thank you." She hung up the phone. "Zerbrowski that was Jerry he sent a email with the vic's face. I'll go get Dolph." She said as she moved over towards the door. She knew Dolph would be right outside with a cigarette. He had recently taken up smoking. Personally she disliked smoking and hated the smell.

"Dolph, Jerry sent over the pic of our vic, thought you might want to be there to see if he has any matches."

"I'll be there in a minute." He told her.

When Anita got back on the room the image had been printed off and being run through missing persons.

"Dolph will be in shortly." She told them. "Any matches?"

"Nothing yet" Zerbrowski told her while handing her a copy of the image. The man had a strong square jaw and a thick neck. He had high Nordic cheek bones. Jerry had given him bluish green eyes and blond hair. Anita took the photo and moved over to one of the empty desks. Pulling out the files from her black leather brief case she started going through the pictures in her files. It took less than five minutes before she found a match. Anita stood up and called every one over. She pulled out the photograph that came with her file.

"This is Theodore Barker, age 27, 6'2'' tall." Anita told them as she held up a photo. While the picture she held up showed a man with medium brown and slightly longish hair, which was different from the image generated by Jerry, he had the same jaw line a cheek bones. "Theodore was a bear lycanthrope from just outside of St Louis. He went missing just under a month ago. He was last seen at Paris Ford Construction where he worked as a foreman. The missing persons report was filed by his live in girlfriend Maria Patterson.

The meeting continued for the next half hour handing out assignments for the next day. The job sight needed to be interviewed as well as the girlfriend. The family needed to be notified, Anita was handling that. Normally telling the family was not one of the tasks Anta received on account of her personality showing a lack of compassion at times. Anita generally felt for the families who lost someone, it was just, she usually felt her time was better spent hunting the bad guys down and this often showed in her facial expressions, however, this one was her responsibility. It was a lycanthrope and being part of the community and felt a strong need to protect them.

As Anita was driving home she ran through everything that happened today and everything that she had to do tomorrow. It was only Monday and she knew it was going to be a long week. It was nearing 10pm and she needed to get to Rutherford Cemetery to raise the Wilkins boy. He was seventeen when he died three months ago and the parents felt they needed closer to find out what happened at the party that had killed him and seven other teens. As far as the police could figure out there was a lot of drinking a black magic book. Things went all wrong from there, however the police could not figure out everything that happened.

It was well past two am nearing on three when Anita arrived at home. She had not had time to feed the Ardeur today however she had eaten two substantial meals at Burger King. Eating a lot of high calorie foods as well as meat helped to control the Ardeur. Damian was already at the Circus. Anita thought about stopping by the Circus but she was just too tired. Nathanial was already asleep his long ankle length red hair was braided down his back. The soft blue jersey sheet was thrown over him covering his ass. Nate was wearing his red cotton pajama pants. He had been required to wear pants to bed instead of just boxers ever since Anita had that pregnancy scare. Nathanial preferred to be naked when he slept and well mostly anytime. His fondness for nudity came partially because of he was a stripper and partially because he was a lycanthrope. Most lycanthropes preferred to wear as little clothes as possible. Anita however was very uncomfortable with the idea being surrounded by half naked men all the time.

Anita was barely asleep for three hours when the phone rang jarring her out of her much needed rest. The sudden ringing had her nearly reaching for the gun that she kept next to her bed. It was a habit that had saved her life on more than one occasion.

"Blake speaking, what do you want?" She asked crankily

"Anita, we have another body." The voice on the other end replied.

TBC

AN: Don't worry Xander will be appearing in the next chapter.

Please leave a Review I really appreciate them.


	5. Kidnapped

The Eyes: They See

Author's Note: I do not own any of the characters from either world they belong to the Lovely Laurell K Hamilton and the Wonderful Joss Weadon.

Chapter Five: Kidnapped

Xander groaned as he picked up his body from where the Powers had literally dropped him, on the side of the road. He felt as though he was shoved out of a second story window. Brushing himself off Xander looked around trying to get a grip on the new world. Everything looked normal. The trees were green, the sky blue, and the asphalt black and cracked.

As far as Xander could tell he was left on the side of a long country road. He looked down both sides of the road hoping to see something so as to give him a clue as to where he was and which way to go. Looking up at the sky he raised his hand up to the powers, "What this is the best you could do? The middle of nowhere with no ID and no money, some help you are. I hope Willow magic shocks your ass." He scolded them. A small brown leather wallet fell and landed on his head. Grabbing it Xander flicked off the powers and rubbed his hands up and down his arms, in an attempt to warm up, he started walking down the road heading left. Xander hoped he would find some place to stay before it got dark.

Three hours later Xander finally found his way into town. It was small, one of those farming towns where everybody knows everyone else, and they don't take to kindly to strangers. After attempting to charm the natives with a tale about trying to work his way across country, Xander found himself staying at Amy's, a cheap run down inn. In order to pay for his accommodations Xander had offered his services as a handyman and was going to start fixing the place up, painting, fixing doors and windows. Chuck, Amy's grandson, now owned the inn. He had been meaning to fix the place up so that more rooms could be opened and it looked nicer to visitors passing through to St. Louis, however, money was a major problem. Chuck was not a big man but he looked more like he belongs on a farm than he did behind a desk at a inn. He was 5'10 with enough muscle to bench 380. Chuck figured that if this Xander kid could do a halfway decent job and fix up a few rooms and help with the exterior, than the new guests might generate enough money to pay for the major work to be done. While he never wanted to get into the hotel business, the inn was their family's pride and joy until his uncle ran it into the ground. And honestly he saw a lot of himself the kid. Chick Winslow did not know what a great deal he was getting in hiring Xander Harris.

One month later.

Xander ran his hand threw his sweat soaked hair before picking up another two by four from the flat bed of the truck. He knew he needed a break but he wanted to finish putting the joist on the overhand of the roof before dark. He was glad he still retained all his carpentry and construction knowledge but he could tell that some of his memories were fading. Things from his old life were getting hazy. Peoples' faces were blurring together, major events that he once remembered clearly were quickly losing detail, while others were fading completely out of existence. At first Xander thought to write down everything he could remember about his old life, but figured that it would be counterproductive. If he spent too much time trying to remember his past his present would most likely kill him.

As Xander started measuring and marking the wood for cutting he remembers back to his first week in this world. He nearly had a heart attack when he discovered that the supernatural was public knowledge here. That vampires were citizens of the good old US of A and one needed a warrant to kill them. Xander was also startled to realize that he himself was not quite human. After realizing that he was a were he had a new respect for what OZ went through. However he was glad to realize that he had control over his beast and kept his mind. He could also partially change when he wanted to without the aid of the moon.

"Hey Chuck, I got the joists put up on the west side from rooms 8 to 14. I'll start on the shingles tomorrow."

"Great. Man you look exhausted. Take the day off tomorrow you can work on the roof this weekend, that way I can help out." Chuck told Xander.

"There was a lot of lifting to do today; I just need to get a good night sleep. How about I do some light work tomorrow and we can roof on Saturday, it really is a two person job."

"Good, I don't want to work you to death my wife would kill me. I think she likes you more than me."

"She just likes me because I eat all of her food." Xander responded with a smile.

"Speaking of Mary made one of her world famous burgers I was just going to send little Mikey to give it to you. Just stop by my place on your way to your room." Chuck lived with his wife Mary and his son Mike in small house just behind the Inn. It use to be the honeymoon cottage back when Amy owned the place but it was easier to live on the property than to commute every day, plus it was cheaper than paying rent on a place for his family and paying for someone to run the desk when he went home.

"God I did not realize how starving I was until you mention that." Xander quickly made his way to the cottage and back to his room. He was had barely taken two bites from his burger when the room filled up with mist. Xander already weak from exhaustion quickly fell to the floor unconscious.

**

Anita quickly sat up in bed, her jerky movement waking Nathanial, who had slept right through the phone ringing. "Is the body like the last?" Anita asked Zerbrowski. She then turned to Nathanial and told him to go back to sleep. She was always jealous at how he could look so impeccably beautiful just waking up. How was it that with so much hair he never had bed head? His hair was still perfectly in its' braid not a strand had fallen out. Running her hand through her own long hair she noted that it had mostly dried in her sleep and was full of tangles. She had a habit of looking like crap rolled over when she woke and being surrounded by all these perfect men was not fair.

Nathanial looked at her questioningly with a bit of fear hidden behind his eyes. Anita knew that Nathanial hated these middle of the night phone calls because it always meant that something bad was happening. She knew it frightened him. He had just recently started to feel safe, like he might actually survive to adulthood. She loved him and wanted to protect him and let him feel safe but she did not always know how to make him feel safe, nor did she always have the energy. "I'll start making your coffee Anita." Nathanial said as he moved to get out of bed.

"Go back to sleep, I can make the coffee this morning." She told him before going back to her phone call.

"I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. Dolph just called me in. I'm assuming from the little I've heard, that we are being called in this early and you were asked for specifically that it is another skinned body." Zerbrowski answered.

"Are you still in your choo choo train pajamas?" She asked as she got out of bed and started pulling her clothes out of her dresser. A pair of black jeans and a navy blue polo.

"Of course not, they're teddy bears this week." Zerbrowski told her. There was a definite smirk to his voice. Anita moved to the kitchen the blue cordless phone firmly pressed against her ear and he right shoulder.

"Where was it found?" Anita asked as she pulled the coffee grounds out of the fridge. She always kept them in the refrigerator because the cold kept the grounds fresh even though they did not last long enough to go bad. She quickly dumped six heaping spoonfuls into the filter before filling the pot up with four cups. She knew that when Nathanial awoke he would make another pot. Although lately he had been on a tea kick because Jason was hooking up with a woman, a Joan something, who worked at the tea and herb shop on River Street.

"The small park on Persimmon Ave; head to the fountain at the center," He told her.

"I know where that is, it's all the way across town. It'll take me forty minutes to get there. There shouldn't be too much traffic at least until seven."

"I'll tell Dolph. I live about fifteen minutes from the dump." Zerbrowski told her.

"What do you think about the location? The two parks are nowhere near each other." Anita asked.

"It widens the possible locations for the killer home or at least where the skinning is taking place. If they are willing to travel across town with the body than it drastically changes the search area. We were thinking the killer was using a warehouse; however this raises the possibility that it could be taking place out in the country especially with the first vic living outside of the city.

"I was afraid of that." Anita told him before hanging up. She needed to get dressed fast, hopefully there was more evidence at this scene. She hated it but the more bodies found the more evidence to be found and she needed every possible hint to find this person before they tried to raise a demon. Anita quickly got dressed, kissed Nathanial, poured the coffee into her green thermos and ran out of the house. She would get breakfast after seeing the body. She knew she was going to have to feed the Ardeur sometime today. She had neglected it for the past few days. Currently she was testing to see how long she could safely go without feeding the Ardeur. Jean-Claude told her that he should not keep pushing the Ardeur it was not healthy for her nor was it healthy for Damian as her power was keeping him alive. However, she hated the Ardeur, the need to feed off of sexual energy made her feel dirty. It was completely against her catholic beliefs to have sex with so many men.

**

Light streamed in through the small window of the partial basement. There was only one window in the room giving the barest glimpse of life beyond the cement prison. A man lying naked curled up in a large cage opened his eye and tried to look at the window. He was quietly muttering to himself over and over again, "I am Xander, I am Xander," a mantra to remind himself who he was. His deep brown eye, surrounded by blood and bruises, stared at that window, as if it held his salvation, hoping to see something of the world outside.

Yesterday, a baby raccoon had spent the day huddled, by the window, seeking shelter from the rain. Every so often, whenever Xander needed it most, something would appear in that window to distract him from his pain. Sometimes he felt as if the heavens were giving him small signs to just hold on a bit longer and something would save him. But there was nothing there today. And he knew he needed it today. He felt as though he was losing the last bit of his sanity. That he would lose his last piece of identity.

Xander slowly tried to straighten his legs from their curled fetal position. The pain was excruciation, ever muscle in his body was screaming against movement. His skin was burning from having gone through his second attempt at being skinned. He could almost hear his broken ribs voicing out their complaints. No matter how much it hurt Xander refused to give up, as some of his fellow prisoners had. He refused to give up his humanity and turn into the animal that his captors wanted him to be. The physical pain his body was going through would be nothing compared to the mental anguish he would be going through if he were to give up and relieve himself where he lay. He would not lie in his own waste just to save himself the pain of moving a few feet.

He crawled inch by inch and hefted himself t a squat, the putrid smell of the basement was a constant burn to his eyes and nose. It had been a few days since his captors had hosed the floor down. And while the cold wet water would chill him to the bones and cause him to shiver for hours in an attempt to keep his thin, staved, naked body warm, the small reprieve from the stench of body waste, blood, and rotting food was well worth it. Xander barely had time to get back to the corner of his cage when he heard the door open and heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

**

Nathanial waited until he heard the front door quietly slam closed before he rolled out of bed. He could never fall back asleep when Anita had to leave of a police call. He knew he worried for nothing because she always came back. Anita was tough, the toughest person he knew but after spending so much time around master vampires, insane wares and a multitude of other supernatural beasties he knew it was a matter of time before something tougher would come.

Moving through the kitchen Nathanial pulled out his cup and the tea that Jason brought him. After putting the kettle on he started on cleaning the coffee pot, mug and the dishes she had left last night. She was never very good at cleaning her dishes and that was fine with him. He enjoyed having something that he could do to help her out.

The kettle let out a loud whistle and Nathanial turned off the sink to make his way over to the stove. A thick mist filled the room. Nathanial quickly ran out of the room but the mist followed him. The deep mist smelt of moisture and moss, it was cold and overwhelming. Scrambling he stumbled through the house slamming into furniture. He tripped over the sofa falling to the ground with a hard thud. He stood up as best he could as the mist made him wobbly. He nearly made it to the front door when the mist caught up with him. It infiltrated his lungs, burning down his bronchial tubes and constricting his air flow. He felt as though he were drowning in a fiery lake. He could feel himself sinking as he crashed to his knees. He started to shift his hands turning into black claws. He prepared to fight. However, there was nothing to fight, just poisonous air and claws were no use without a tangible opponent. Nathanial tried to scream out to Damian hoping the vampire could hear him from the garage apartment. The attempt to scream left him coughing furiously unable to breathe. Within a few seconds the room went black and he lost the battle to remain conscious.

AN: I'm sorry this has taken so long but writers block has hit me. However I just read Flirt and it seems to be sparking me with inspiration.


	6. Energy

The Eyes: The See

A/N: I'm sorry that this took so long to get out. I'm back so chapters should be coming out more regularly. I have a few ideas for the next few chapters already. I apologize again for the long wait.

Also, this chapter has my very first sex scene. I tried to make it tasteful. It's labeled so that if you want to skip it you can, but I suggest you read the rest of the chapter.

For anyone reading my DC fic, I am a bit lost for plot at this point but I will eventually get back to it.

Chapter Six: Energy

"Damn it! Where is he? It's been four days. Four days and we are still no closer to finding him." Anita raged as she stormed around the room. She had been pacing around the room for nearly a quarter of an hour, wearing a hole in Jean-Claude's plush carpet, waiting for Jean-Claude and Asher to get back from their meeting.

"Jean-Claude will be back soon. This looks like it will be a promising lead." Jason tried to calm her down for the umpteenth time.

"Then why won't they talk to me."

"Because you're the Executioner, you frighten them." Anita hated this. She was use to a vampire's fear of her being a good thing, not a hindrance. But this vampire was so afraid of her that he would go catatonic whenever she was in the room. Not being there to question the guy was wearing on her last nerve. Nathanial was hers to protect, because she was both his lover and his Nimir-Ra (queen of the pard), but she could do nothing sitting in a room like some child being kept out of the adult conversations. But most of all she hated feeling helpless. She had been helpless to stop the kidnapping; she'd been helpless to help rescue him. She had been helpless to save the now three dead lycanthropes that had been found all of which had marks of having been skinned several times. This monster was torturing his victims for days, weeks before killing them. And now they have Nathanial, and it was killing her.

Anita paced back and forth for another five minute before the door opened and Jean-Claude and Asher walked in.

"Well, what did he say? Does he know where Nathanial is being kept?" Anita asked.

"Non Ma Petite, however, Mr. Owens does the nighttime deliveries for the butchers on 14th. He said that he has been making weekly large meat deliveries to the same guy for the past month all to different locations but the same guy meets him. Two weeks ago when he was making the delivery a man jumped out of the back of the van shifted and passed out. Two others came out of the van, shot the guy with a tranquilizer dart and put the shifted man back into the van." Jean-Claude explained.

"What did the van look like? Did he get the plates? What is the client's name? When is the next delivery?" Anita started bursting off questions. This was the first lead she had gotten and she was not going to waste any time.

"Ma Petite slow down. We have all the information we are going to get from Mr. Owens. You need to feed before we go into this."

"Are you crazy we don't have time for this, I'll feed after we get Nathanial back."

"Ma Petite, you are not doing Nathanial any good by not feeding, if fact you are doing him a great disservice. Mr. Graison and Damian depend on you for energy. As such you have been stealing energy from Damian to support both you and Nathanial; however Damian has no more energy to give. If you do not feed you will be killing all three of you."

"Damn it." Anita hated that he was right, she hated that she was some kind of succubus. Worse off she hated that people depended on her feeding for survival. If it was just herself that was one thing but not feeding effected Nathanial and Damian and Nathanial needed all the energy he could get if he was to survive his capture.

"Fine, send everyone out." Anita ordered. She refused to do this with an audience if she could avoid it.

**Warning Sex Scene**

Anita quickly took off her shoes and sat in the middle of the bed, fully clothed, with her eyes closed. Taking in slow deep breaths Anita tried to calm herself down. She knew she could not raise the Ardeur in her current mental state. She felt the bed move as Jean-Claude crawled up behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders gently massaging the tension from her neck; running he long cold fingers down her arms. She knew it had been awhile since he last bed by how cold his skin was, but she chose not the think about that and just enjoyed the sensation.

Jean-Claude moved his hands to the front of her torso caressing her as he delicately unbuttoned her deep red blouse; revealing her black lacy bra and soft skin. Anita felt her breath shiver as his hands tickled hips as he reached down and lifted her onto his lap. She opened her eyes and leaned up pressing her lips to his, her inquisitive tongue demanding entrance. Her hands moved to grasp he head pulling him down and deepening the kiss until she was short of breath. "Damn vampires and your lack of need to breathe," she muttered to him.

"All the better to please you with my dear," He replied with a smirk planted firmly on his face.

"Don't get cocky." Anita told him as she pushed him off of her and proceeded to remove both his and her clothing. She loved how his tight leather pants made his ass look, it always made her hot, but they were a nuisance to the actual fucking process.

Anita carefully laid down onto the blue satin sheets pulling Jean-Claude on top of her; rubbing her thigh against him eliciting a moan of pleasure from his red lips. Anita mumbled encouragement when he found the curve of her breast. All the horrifying thoughts of what could be happening to Nathanial left her mind. Desire had lit up within her, taking hold and focusing her attention and lust onto Jean-Claude. Moving her hand between them she reached out and stroked his cock while undulating beneath him; gasping as he used his fingers to open her up. He danced his thumb over her lower lips, circling her opening and plunging his fingers deep within her. Anita was writhing and moaning under him and he continued to work her body. She had since let go of his hard cock and was grasping and scratching at his back. She could feel herself feeding on his lust, the energy filling her as she was waiting for his cock to fill her.

"Damn it! Fuck me already." She demanded loudly.

"As you wish Ma Petite," he told her as he quickly entered her hard, the tip of his penis slamming into her cervix.

"YES," she screamed, while digging her nails into his back and trusting her pelvis towards him trying to push him deeper. She didn't want it gentle; she wanted it hard and rough. She could feel herself nearing the edge and could tell Jean-Claude was there as well from the look in his eye. She mover her hands and grabbed a fist full of his long brown hair and pull his lips down to hers in a hard, deep kiss shrieking into his mouth as she quivered around him in orgasmic bliss. Felling her contractions around his pulsating cock sent him off to empty himself within her.

**Sex Scene Over**

"Who is Willow?" Nathanial asked his voice barely above a whisper. Xander knew that Nathanial didn't have much time left. His skin was cold to the touch, but Nathanial had stopped shivering hours ago. His body did not have the energy to try to save it self anymore.

"I don't remember, but I think she was someone special to me."

"Are you going to try and find her if we get out of here."

"No, I don't think she's alive anymore." Xander told him. For a few minutes they were quiet as Xander started at the window, as if trying to find the memory of his forgotten friend in the darkness.

"I'm sorry." Nathanial said trying to stop his new friend from falling into the dark recesses his mind. Xander had no memory of anything from before he was captured. The men need to break you before they could take a skin without it reverting back to human. As long as you remembered that you were human you lived for one more day. Xander would spend hours trying to remember who he was, and he always recited his name so as to not forget it. He had Nathanial doing the same.

"Don't be, I know everything I need. My name is Xander and as long as I remember that she can never win. And you my human kitten are Nathanial and I will never let you forget who you are. She cannot take our skin as long as we remember that regardless of the fact that we are lycanthropes, we are human; not animal."

"I like when you call me human, so few people see me as human anymore, even before I was infected."

"We are always human no matter what life makes us as long as we are alive they can't take our soul away, unless we give them permission."

"You'll protect my soul for me?"

"Always," He responded.

"I'm cold."

"Then rest and I'll protect your soul, for you have already saved mine."

Xander curled up around the sleeping redhead trying to keep them both warm, in the cold damp air that seemed to seep into his aching bones. Xander remembered when the boy came into his life, his presence saving the very last of his sanity.

_Flashback_

It had been days since anything came into the little window in the corner of the basement. Days since his captors bothered to feed him, or hose down his cage. The smell of mold, feces, and decomposing puddles of skin and blood, from past skinnings, was overwhelming, and the hunger was worse. The constant gnawing in his stomach as his body tried to digest itself for the energy to keep his heart pumping.

The day before the man in the adjoining cage gave up and attacked the other man in his cage killing him and resorting to cannibalism to satiate his hunger. Xander briefly thought of reaching thru his bars and trying to grab a piece of the flesh to eat. Xander was so close to losing that last bit of humanity in him, the animal inside screaming to come out. In the back of his mind he knew he had no choice, he was never getting out, never leaving, he would die here. If he were only to release that last bit of his beast; at least in his last days, the hunger and shame of his life would fade into the background. The pain would be slightly less.

However before Xander could move to grab a piece of the arm that had fallen thru the bars of his cage the door opened and footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. It was their captors and torturer who smiled when they saw the state of their prisoners. They knew that it was time to harvest the skin. Xander watched as a small long haired red haired man was pushed down the cement stairs landing with a crunch as his bones broke with the impact. The captors follows down the stairs and roughly pickup the barely conscious young man and quickly threw him in to Xander's cage.

Xander couldn't move terrified that they were coming for him again. He couldn't take another session. The drugs that forced a transformation and paralyzed the body yet leaving every nerve ending perceptive to the pain they were about to endure. The silver knives burning his body as they slowly removed the skin, pealing it back gently so as to not damage the pelt. The cold harsh voice as one of them read from a spell book a ritual. The drying pain of his eyes tearing up from the pain but being unable to blink to moisten his eyes, it was too much, too horrible. Xander couldn't face that again, not so soon, it had only been two days, they usually gave him more recovery time.

Fate was with him today, they quickly closed the cage and moved over to the other, were the man was still eating his cellmate not paying any attention to the world around him. The captors pulled out their cattle prods and started tasering, before pulling out the large hypodermic needle and drugging him. They carried the unresponsive man up the stairs, leaving behind the partially eaten carcass. When Xander heard the door lock he was finally able to move again. He didn't know what to do, he was so hungry and so tired and the carcass was sitting right over there waiting to be eaten. He could give up, just fall into the temptation of finally losing his mind. But there between him and the food laid the man naked and covered in a waterfall of red hair, shivering and barely conscious. But there was no choice to be made when the violet eyes rose and looked at him. He would keep his soul for one more day if only to help the man in his cage.

"Shh, it's okay. My name is Xander." He told the man.

_End Flashback._

Xander closed his eyes and smiled as he felt Nathanial's body finally start to warm up again. He fell asleep listening to the heart beat gaining energy and getting stronger thinking that maybe they both might survive the night.

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